Why do we call the American Tulip Tree a Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar? When in fact it is more closely related to the Magnolias and not at all to the true Populus poplars.

Try looking at this.



Kind of looks like an aspen doesn’t it?

…. No …..I’ve never wondered about that lol

It's the shape of the leaf....looks like a tulip.

That's the tulip part but what about the poplar part when it's not really a poplar.

An aspen is a type of poplar.

Keith

That it is. But at a distance they look similar to tulip, tall light colored stem with yellow/gold fall color. My working theory is why tulip got poplar hung on it.

I don’t know about your area, but around here, they develop flowers in the spring that resemble tulips. I figured that’s why they were called tulip poplars.

Oh come on, this isn't the type of question that keeps you awake at night???

Tulip poplars do well on my end of the state, but don't grow here without being planted. In South East, Ohio, tulip poplars grow in the wild. Twenty some years ago, I planted some at my mom's house, that are spectacular now. A friend of mine has some that he planted too. I love how straight tulip poplars are. I have a 16' stickered bunk of tulip poplar and beech in my barn, that I should do something with, that's dried in there since 2012. It's 9/4 to 10/4 thick.

Keith

The Y. Pop I know grows tall, straight,
and splits easy with an axe.
If air drying, cups and warps.

The Tul. Pop is harder, needs hydros or a young girl
for processing. And burns better.
The Rainbow slabs command big money
IF you find the buyer.

Two different color saw dust.
No doubt youns milage will vary.

as far as i know, they are both the same species, WB...Liriodendron tulipifera

Indiana’s first state forester, Charles Deam, had a personal mission to get everyone to call it “Tulip tree”.

There's an old boy over here that
calls them cottonwoods. Clear as mud.

I may be seeing the same species in
drastically different growing conditions.

A Penn St guy comes around twice a year.
I've "unlearned" a lot from him.


First snow right now.

confusion around common names is why foresters use scientific names when talking among themselves.

I think you're right about different growing conditions...makes sense to me.

I agree

Eastern Cottonwod is our only native poplar down south and it is never called poplar. Matter of fact many have no idea that cottonwood is a poplar unless they've done some basic botany.

The trees normally grow straight and tall. Very good self pruners. And the wood is good for lots of different construction materials.

Makes a great honey here.

The Tul I had, grew within 50 yards of an older
"Big Leaf Maple". Bloom times were real close
and many experts confused the two.

Do beaver like it? That would be the important thing…

Les, A friend said yes but he called it popple.
And pretty sure he doesn't know scientific name of beaver.
His drywall mudding (sheet rock finishing) skills are
coming along nicely tho.

Im not sure what your asking but the tree in the picture isnt a Tulip Poplar.

They are pretty. Indiana plants the crap out of them.

I like knowing they were the tree the Indians liked for canoes.

Lots of trees were given common names reflecting their similarity in usage compared to other better known trees. That was all they cared about.
liriodendron is Latin for 'lily tree' while tulipifera is Latin for 'tulip-bearing'.
Therefor it should be called the Tulip-bearing Lily Tree, which of course, makes everyone except myself wrong, which happens to be my sole purpose in life as I reach full maturity.
On the plus side, it has been said that I am quiet once you get to know me.

Yes, but not as much as sweet gum.

It most certainly is.

Looks white to me maybe its the way the suns hitting it. If you can get a close up.

.. the other night I was lying in bed wondering why some people name there daughters after holly bushes

…. Then my mind drifted towards white oaks and why the big shag bark ones only drop acorns every now and then

… later I woke up in a cold sweat after a bad dream involving aggressive red cedars

I use poplar as a substitue for Japanese Honoki wood, a magnolia specie to make scabbards and hilts
and also for some of my carving

That is why trees have "scientific (Latin) names!" And thanks to dendrologists with time on their hands and a sense of humor, tulip popular is one of my favorites!

Liriodendron tulipifera

Pete

I have built a bunch of dugouts with them. One thing I learned that completely unexpected is that the wood appears to either never waterlog, or it takes a VERY long time. One that I built in 2012 has been stored underwater, only floating it once every few years for a paddle around the lake or some fish spearing. To raise it from the bottom, I just start taking the big rocks out and usually when there are 3 or 4 left, it starts to slowly come up. When the gunwales break the surface, I bail it out.
I would have never guessed that it would not waterlog in over a decade. Most of the wood is less than 2 inches thick, but the prows have a little more mass, maybe 4” thick.
Here is a picture of the one I built in 2012 being paddled by a buddy a couple years ago. It is stable enough that a person can stand on one gunnel without capsizing. Its big, heavy, and slow, but basically indestructible and definitely unsinkable unless weighted down.

I like using poplar on almost any wood shop project that’s getting painted.

I built my granddaughter’s toy chest out of it.

That's really cool. Do you make the dugouts in a traditional way or with modern tools?

How long does it take to make a dugout?

What's the advantage to keeping the dugouts underwater for storage?

Keith

That is pretty cool.

The reason they are stored underwater is because they do not crack. If you allow them to dry they will crack and split and require a lot of pitch or sealant of some kind to be watertight.

I have made them with both modern and stone tools. One of them the tree was felled by burning, which took about 14 hours, then it was hollowed out by a combination of chopping with stone axes and burning which took several days. It goes faster than you might expect, because we started by using antler wedges and wood glits to split the top and bottom off leaving about a 14” “center beam” which is then hollowed out. We actually found that the most efficient method was to mostly chop it with stone axes, then do a few burns to finish and smooth it. And ethnographic accounts worldwide support that most of them were chopped not burned to hollow. In fact the early North American accounts of burning are all third hand and a little suspect in accuracy. Let me see if I can find the YouTube video of fire felling that one…
Another thing I learned - if the tree is under about 12 or 14 inches diameter, it is faster and easier to chop it down with a stone axe, but any bigger and the effort involved favors burning the tree down. Chopping a 30” tree with a stone axe takes around 40 hours, but you can burn one down in about 15 hours. But under about 12”, the stone axe will have it down before you really even get the fire going enough to do anything.

My skills are improving too,lol, seems I’m getting older and there’s more to it than I ever thought…

More people will see it like this and it's worth seeing.



I have heard of burning trees down,but never seen it before, thanks and thanks for the explanations too.

Keith

I have no idea what a tulip poplar or tulip tree is, but here's an even more confusing one.

The Douglas fir is one of the most common and widespread conifers in the western USA, and the most significant timber producing tree in the Pacific Northwest.
However, it is not a fir tree, it is actually a type of spruce. But what is most confusing is it's scientific name, Pseudo-tsuga Meenziesii: Pseudo-tsuga means "false hemlock".

I'll see your Pseudo-tsuga Menziestii and raise you a Robinia pseudoacacia....

Show offs

At one time I could buy Doug Fir.
I "think" it came from out West.
Our normal Structural Select is Hem Fir.

^^^^
"Hem Fir"; hemlock and any other true fir (silver, white, grand, noble, etc). But unknown to most people none of the superior Doug fir makes it into the hem-fir sort.

In framing lumber grading Doug Fir is in it's own category (D Fir) or sometimes included with Larch (D-Fir-L). The medium strength firs are grouped together (Hem-Fir or H-F) and the weaker spruces, pines and firs are in their own group (S-P-F). Southern Yellow Pine is usually in it's own category (SYP) and is mostly used in treated lumber and plywood.

There have only been a few occasions when I've had architects specify Doug Fir. Almost always it was on longer clear spans in residential construction.

Oh yeah? Well how about my alltime Dendrology favorite Dawn Redwood: Metasequoia glyptostroboides!

Pete

DARN, you're good!

You win!

You guys beech like a grove of Fagus grandifolias.

Keith

Got a 30 footer west of my lane grew it from a 1 foot shute

[quote=warrior]Why do we call the American Tulip Tree a Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar? When in fact it is more closely related to the Magnolias and not at all to the true Populus poplars.



No, but I have always wondered why Minnesotans cannot say poplar. It's really not that hard. Must be the Scandinavian in them.

Me too.
Kind of like "fisher cat", just make is simple (and correct); fisher.

I was trying to look up our cherries
to ask you guys about the big money wood.
Can you say excedrin headache in latin.

Prunus serotina is black cherry.

Keith

its because we naturally want to say popple not because we can’t say poplar….it’s not a speech impediment….

It's not just Minnesotans, local folks in north central PA call it popple too. When I first heard that I had no idea what they were referring to.

When the sap is running late spring here. People cut and peel the bark to make house siding. Brings a pretty penny as well.

I’d like to see a picture of that siding deployed